Celebrating Thistle’s Commitment to Sustainability
Here at Thistle, our mission is to make eating nutritious, plant-forward food incredibly convenient and accessible while improving the sustainability of our food system. Our co-founders Ash and Shiri started Thistle out of a passion to improve health and wellness for all, including the health and wellness of our planet.
Eating plant-forward meals is one of the most impactful ways to reduce your environmental footprint. We know that going completely vegan may be hard for many, which is why we do include a sustainably sourced meat add-on option while keeping these non-vegan meals 90% plant-based. For our meals that include meat, we make sure to only use 3 oz versus a typical 6 oz+ portion — so you’re drastically reducing your meat consumption while taking a big step in the right direction minimizing our overall carbon footprint. We also never use beef or other ruminants that have a disproportionately negative impact on the environment.
We’ve made these decisions based on research from reasonably conservative estimates that a typical meat eater’s diet has at least 2–3x the carbon and water footprint of a vegan — many other studies have found these estimates to be much higher.
As we further expand and grow, our commitment to environmental sustainability continues to be a core value for us. From our recyclable, compostable, and reusable packaging, to the sourcing of our seasonal ingredients, we strive to reduce our environmental footprint whenever possible.
Over the years, we’ve made improvements to our packaging driven by our commitment to sustainability:
In addition, Thistle has made environmentally-conscious decisions in many other areas:
- Thistle production facilities all run on 100% renewable power!
- We donate the by-product of our meals to local farmers for composting and we donate meals to local food banks. In 2018 alone, we donated more than 6,000 meals to people in need.
- Minimizing food waste has been a huge goal for us and we’ve cut our food waste by 33% since Q3 of last year. Plus we are well on our way towards reducing waste by another third this quarter.
- Most of our fruits, vegetables, and nuts are sourced from local farms that provide the highest quality ingredients in a sustainable way — by providing us with the best, most flavorful, in-season produce. By sourcing from local farms, we reduce the amount of driven miles needed to transport ingredients.
Our commitment to sustainability continues as we launch our newest add-on option… SOUP! Our new seasonal soups will help us become a more sustainable food company by diverting at least 10% of our product every week from going into compost.
Click here to add soup to next week’s order and stay tuned for more information on our spring lineup of delicious, hearty soups!
Although we’ve made great strides to improve Thistle’s environmental footprint, we are far from done. In addition to making the reduction of food waste a top priority in 2019, our other major goal for the year is to green our packaging options. We’re actively testing alternatives to our current meal containers, including compostable containers, post-consumer recycled PET (made out of recycled water bottles!) that can in turn continue to be recycled, and most excitingly, reusable packaging options!
If you’re interested in helping us pilot our reusable packaging program once testing is complete, let us know here!
As your partner in health and wellness, we hope you will continue to support us and our efforts to create a more beautiful, sustainable world for generations to come.
